Tom Watson watches his ball go into the hole after hitting out of the rough during his memorable 17th hole during the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

By Christine Brennan, USA TODAY

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif.  Time travel being impossible, or so they say, we can't go back to the 1980s and just drop in on some of our favorite sports moments.

If we walked into Candlestick Park today, for instance, we wouldn't find Joe Montana throwing the football to a leaping Dwight Clark as he did in the NFC Championship Game in January 1982. And even if we persuaded them both to show up again to play catch, it certainly wouldn't be for real, with a Super Bowl berth on the line.

We could ask North Carolina State's Lorenzo Charles to show up in The Pit in Albuquerque to dunk, as he did to win the 1983 men's NCAA basketball championship, or ask Mary Lou Retton to perform one more vault in Pauley Pavilion, as she did to win her 1984 Olympic gold medal in the women's gymnastics all-around competition, but even if they came and obliged us, it would be just for fun.

But if we asked Tom Watson to show up today at Pebble Beach to play the treacherous, cliff-side par-3 17th hole again — the place where his 16-foot chip from the gnarly rough went into the hole to help ensure his first and only U.S. Open title five months after Clark made "The Catch" up the road in San Francisco — he would tell us he's teeing off on No. 10 at 1:47 p.m. local time in the 2010 U.S. Open, so expect to see him on the 17th tee at around 4.

For real.

People might scoff that golf isn't a real sport if a 60-year-old man can come back 28 years after his great triumph in his national championship to play the same hole (as well as 17 others) on the same course in the same championship. Then again, isn't this exactly what sports should be about: that dreamy opportunity to escape from the real world, turn back the clock and remind everyone of what once happened on this exact spot?

That sounds just fine to Watson, who received a special exemption into his 31st U.S. Open based at least partially on his superb play in nearly winning last year's British Open.

"The nostalgia," he said in a news conference Wednesday afternoon. "I guess it comes when we get to the 17th tee or 17th green and the 18th tee, and everybody wants to take a picture. It kind of reminds me of what happened, what occurred here before. It's pretty sweet. It's pretty nice."

Watson has been back to Pebble Beach, and to the 17th hole in particular, many times since he won the 1982 Open with one of the most memorable shots in golf history, followed by one of its most famous spontaneous celebrations, jubilantly bounding after the ball and running around the green in delight.

Not long after that Open, Watson and some business associates were having dinner at the course when he stood up at the table and announced that they should all go out and try the shot. "We were talking about it a lot. It was a lucky shot. And everybody said, 'Yeah, let's go.' "

He went back to his room, grabbed his wedge and several golf balls and walked out with the others to the 17th green in the pitch-black night.

He set a ball down in the right spot, told everyone where the flag had been, and got ready to hit.

"I sculled it clear over the green. We all tried it a bunch of times. And we laughed about it and came back in."

He has been back to the spot recently, too — last September, while filming for his new instructional video, Lessons of a Lifetime.

"The second disk starts off with a re-creation of the shot," Watson said. "I'll tell you I holed it again, but I won't tell you how many times it took me."

Watson tees off today with two of the youngest stars in the game, Ryo Ishikawa, 18, and Rory McIlroy, 21. When Watson won his Open here, Ishikawa wouldn't be born for more than nine years, and McIlroy almost seven.

When he saw the pairings, Watson said he "started adding up the ages. Their combined age is 39, and I'm 60. I've got them by 21 years."

They know they are going to be playing with a man who is walking out of the pages of the golf history books. The wedge Watson used to hit the chip on No. 17 is here, too, on display this week in the Lexus corporate tent.

"If you want to see it," Watson said, "it's right over there."

And if you want to see the fellow who hit it, he's right over there, on the tee, at the 2010 U.S. Open.

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

Guidelines: You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference. Read more.